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CU employee charged in accidental shooting in medical office

Charges have been filed against a woman who accidentally shot a co-worker Friday on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical campus.

Mary Loeb, 49, a business manager in the School of Dental Medicine, faces charges of prohibited use of weapons and unlawful conduct on public property related to the discharge of a .22-caliber revolver as she showed the gun to Lilibeth Lopez-Gonzales, 33.

Loeb is no longer employed by the university, spokesman Dan Meyers said.

Patients were in the building at the time of the shooting, but Meyers said the bullet remained within the administrative office.

Loeb told police she bought the gun because of neighborhood concerns and recent campus thefts.

Loeb told Lopez-Gonzales she believed she was being followed Friday morning, and the story led her to show the gun she carried in her bag.

After Loeb dismantled the gun to safely show how it worked, it became jammed. While Loeb attempted to clear the jam, the gun fired.

Loeb told police the bullet ricocheted off a filing cabinet and the carpet, then struck Lopez-Gonzales in the back of her calf. Loeb's finger was cut by the bullet.

Loeb has a concealed-carry permit, according to police. A March state Supreme Court decision ruled that people with concealed-carry permits may possess guns in any area under the control of CU police.

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On Tuesday, the School of Medicine Faculty Senate voted 28-0 to support an online petition urging University of Colorado president Bruce Benson to fight to return control of the campus firearms policy to the Board of Regents.

In March, the state high court said the regents overstepped their authority by banning permitted concealed weapons on campus.

"I think the Colorado Supreme Court ruled correctly that that was the intent of the law — that CU could not prevent firearms on campus," philosophy professor Chad Kautzer, who started the petition, told the senate. "What we're trying to do is get the university onboard ... to ask for an exception for CU."

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